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This last week has been an eye opener for me. I’ve seen one of the most important people in my life go and I’ve been blessed to see many other people walk into my life in just one short week.

Being put down by someone you care for and you’ve known for years is a tough thing to go through. I however know that I am truly the BLESSED one going through this experience. I will be the one coming out on TOP. I deserve SO much in this life and I am NOT willing to ever settle AGAIN for someone less than what I deserve. I deserve to be respected and NOT lied to for weeks on end. A relationship is built on TRUST. Without trust there is no faithfulness. I believe I was an amazing person in this persons life and I know I was. I was one of the best things that could have ever happened to them. I was patient, caring, and tried my best to better that person. There is no bettering a person if they don’t want it themselves. You have to want something yourself to ever succeed in life to find a good job or good friends.

The one thing that hurts the most is to know the person you cared for who loved you at once didn’t really care for you in the last couple of months you spent with them. Lying to someone is never the answer. Being honest from the start is what saves the person you hurt from more heart ache and pain. The worst things is that 2 STRANGERS could walk into that person’s life and they become that person’s world before you are even out of the relationship. Those 2 strangers are the ones replacing the spot where you once stood. Those new people who are now in your life have the joy of getting to deal with all the of the lies, and disrespect that you once gave me. Things maybe all great now but in time your true colors will come out and so will theirs.

People may think I am being disrespectful right now but this is me coping. I don’t deserve someone talking non sense about me when I all I did was ever be an amazing friend who was their for you and supported you. I am not the one in the wrong. I have been a mature adult and I have been holding my head when there are times where I could sink in a whole for days. For two strangers to talk badly about me who don’t even know me and post pictures to make me jealous shows what kind of character they have. Even more than ever your true colors are coming out because you have provoked them to do these things.
After a long friendship like we had you think that out of the goodness of your heart you could be respect but NO!
I however am not mad a you, I am sorry for you. I am sorry that you feel you need to stoop to that level. I thought I knew who you were but I didn’t. You were living a life that was a lie. You lied to yourself, you lied to me, you lied to your PARENTS and still are lying to them. I however do not have to deal with this lying ever again. I have gained a whole new perspective on life.

I have gained strength in myself.

I have gained more strengthen in my relationship with GOD.

I have built relationships with people who I never would have if I was never set free from this friendship.

I now know that I deserve someone who is respectful, kind, caring, HONEST and not a CHEATER!

I’ve gained more respect for myself.

The biggest lesson I have learned is that to be happy in life you have to be happy with your self!

I thanks to you am now happier with in a matter of a short time without you in my life. You were keeping me from my happiness and I am so relieved to not have a negative person holding me back, and me giving up opportunities because of someone else.

One of the biggest things I realize is that the person I cared for was going know where with their life. They are just going through the motions and settling for an easy life. Things in life that are worth working for take time and effort. You can’t be a lazy person and expect to have the world at your hands.

So through this all I want to thank this person for opening my eyes up. Thank you for opening my eyes up and seeing the real person that you are and not the person who I thought you were. I wish you the best and I wish you a life full of happiness but in order for you to achieve that you have to work on yourself.

Through this hard time I have turned to my support system. I have a family who understand me and who I can tell the TRUTH to. Some may not understand the relationship that I have with my parents but you don’t need to. My parents and I’s relationship is built off of a strong foundation. We are an honest and loving family. We don’t build relationships with one another or any one for a matter of fact off of lies. For some families I truly feel sorry that they aren’t happy. I hope for those families that one day they can find piece of mind. My parents are proud of who I am and the women I am becoming. I can truly say that I know I am a good person. I don’t bring others down just for the fun of it. I care for others deeply, I’m respectful, and most of all trustworthy. I look forward to my future and I am now ready to move on with my life and to move on to bigger and better things.

As some of you may know this summer I am taking an online class. The class that I am taking is all about social media for public relations. This week’s assignment was to blog about your personal online brand.

The first thing that I initially did was Google myself. I wasn’t shocked by what I found because I have always been very aware about what I post on the Internet. Having a positive self-image/brand on the web is very important aspect to me. When I googled my name I looked at each result that came up with me in it. I looked everywhere from my twitter, WordPress, LinkedIn to my MySpace page. Nothing negative really stood out to me.

What I learned from my search is that I have a positive brand on the web. The themes that I noticed is that all my pictures were pretty much the same on each social media account. So I am consistent with that. I read this blog by Jon Negroni and he stated the following about branding yourself online, “ Once you know exactly what you want your personal brand to be, it’s time to implement it across all of your channels.” (http://jonnegroni.com/2013/05/22/5-steps-to-branding-yourself-online/) I believe that what Jon said is something I do very well across all social media accounts. I don’t post inappropriate pictures or anything of that nature. The big theme that stood out to me is that I do not use vulgar language at all on social media. Since I first started using social media it has been instilled in me to be appropriate online because one-day just one post, comment or photo could cost you your dream job. In the book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Scott he stated, “Think like a publisher by understanding your audience.” The one thing when I make post on social media sites is that I think about whom my followers are and what their reason for following me or liking my page is. I want to post about things that they care about or what they want to know about me. Online I present myself in a mature and respectful manner. The one change that I would like to change is deleting my vines. It’s not because they are inappropriate but because they aren’t good quality videos and I know that I could do much better work than what I did. IF someone were to search me on the web I believe they would get an accurate representation of me. I think that someone would see that I am a respectful person and respect myself. I think the one thing that someone may not see about me on the web is that I am very creative. That’s one thing that I need to work on displaying on social media outlets. This assignment has made me want to get my name out more on the web in a professional manner.

One thing I have come up with is my own brand statement. On social media outlets it always ask you to describe your self in a few short sentences so developing my own brand statement will be helpful. In the future I hope to use my brand statement on my social media accounts. My brand statement that I have come up with describes whom I am and what I want to do as a profession. My brand statement is, Mateja Sears, a public relations enthusiast who enjoys speaking on behalf of her clients and branding their company. The work I do helps companies get the word out about a clients products and developing relationships between clients and their publics. The work that I do brings me much joy and happiness because I can see first had how clients and the public develop a positive relationship with one another.

Developing a new online personal brand I believe will affect the chances of me getting a job when I graduate. I think that having a positive image on the web makes me a stand out candidate when it comes to be a potential employee. A potential employer will not have to worry about me posting any negative or inappropriate material online.

As I worked on this assignment the one thing that I could implement the most into my life is by participating in social media on regular basis. I do this to a certain extent but the one thing that I need to work on is making post on a more schedule basis. On page 276 Scott stats, “But in all cases, success comes from engaging in the activity regularly.” I will take this into much consideration and implement it into my life. I want to begin making regular blog post and sharing my thoughts.

On Saturday April 26 my family and I had to put down our yellow lab named Ruger. Ruger was only three years old and his death was very unexpected. The reason why Ruger needed to be put down was because he had what is known as bloat. Bloat is when the dogs stomach flips on them. His small intestines ended up being in his chest and he also had a foreign object in his stomach. My family and I loved Ruger very much. We were willing to do anything to save his life. Ruger was going to need two surgeries to save his life and these surgeries were critical as well as expensive. The surgeries combined together and the after care would have cost approximately $7,000. I begged my parents to pay that much to go ahead with the surgery but they told me they had to draw the line somewhere. I understand the decision they made and I know it was a hard decision for them to make. Even if we would have went through with the surgeries Ruger was in very critical condition and he could have possibly passed away during the surgeries. Ruger would have been in a lot of pain during recovery as well so now as much as I miss my dog I believe that my family and I made the best decision for our dog.

Dealing with the death of Ruger is being taken very hard in my family. We each had such a special connection with him and he left us with the greatest memories. Everywhere in my house has a special memory with Ruger. Ruger would always like to open the shower door when I was showering and drink the water. It was always so funny when I got out of the shower because his face was all wet. Even after I showered when I put lotion on he would like to lick the lotion off of my leg. Writing about it now even makes me chuckle.

Ruger was a very silly dog and loved to show his affection to my family and I. When ever someone came home he would bark like someone was breaking into the house. Once he realized it was one of us he would lay his ears back and wiggle. It was the cutest thing to see and I can picture it now. I wish I had a video of him wiggling but I have the memory and that is what counts. Another thing Ruger loved besides his family were his treats. When ever you said the word treat he would perk up and get excited and meet you at the hall closet to get his treat.

Ruger had a great personality. One thing my family and I would always say to him is, why the long face Ruger? Ruger would sit like he was huntched over some times and stick his leg out real far. We always said he looked like Igor from Winnie the Pooh when he sat like that.

Ruger as a puppy was a chubby little boy. The first time I ever held him he grunted like a pig. He constantly did that when we held him and he did that until he got use to us. He came around real soon and he really loved us. Throughout Rugers life he was always very affectionate. One of the first days that we had Ruger as a puppy he would hold his hand out and want to shake your hand. Holding Rugers hand was something I did with him on a daily basis. He would always just hold his paw out and he assumed you would just pick his paw up.

Loosing Ruger so suddenly was one of the hardest things I have had to go through this past year. Ruger was a part of my family and he always will be. My family and I miss him dearly and we talk about him everyday. Each of us cherish all the memories we have created with Ruger. My wish for Ruger is that he is in peace and that he understands why we had to make the decision we did.

This semester I have really learned a lot about my future career in public relations. The one greatest lesson I learned is that there is always something I could be doing to better my self. This is something I learned early on in the semester when I attended career development day, which I previously have blogged about. Attending career development day really lighted a fire underneath me and made me want to be a better student practicing public relations.

Through out the semester I believe that I have had lots of accomplishment which I am proud of. My first accomplishment that I am really proud of is being on the executive board for PRSSA. My seconded accomplishment is advancing my writing techniques. I have written multiple pieces of copies and have had them continually checked over. Once my copies were edited and rechecked I made the necessary improvements on them. Making those improvements and being aware of my mistakes has taught me the most and has advanced my writing. I owe a lot of thanks to my teacher, Stacey Howard. She has really helped me out time after time this semester. Attending her 8 a.m. public relations writing class wasn’t always my favorite because it was early in the morning, but I sure did learn a lot more attending her class than if I was sleeping.

One thing I will take away from this semester is to be professional in all that you do. A few other things I will take away from the semester is that it is important to be networking, to maintain my blog, gain experience, and to practice all types of writing when it is not required of you.

As the semester is coming to a close I can see the finish that is ahead of me. This is just one semester down in my path of earning my degree. I have one year left of school and then I will truly meet the finish line. Who knows I may even begin a master program in the near future after I graduate.

This past weekend was one for the books. It was Easter weekend and I was so happy that I could go home and spend time with my family and friends.

On Friday night my friends and I got together and we had a black light party. For those of you who don’t know what a black light party is it’s where you wear neon clothes or white and you clothes glow in the dark. It’s a really good time and I think that all of my friends who came to the party had a really good. What I really like about when my friends and I get together is that we all get to catch up and talk about all the great times we have had with one another.

Sunday was Easter and it was day filled with family. Through out the day my family and I worked outside together on our house and just enjoying spending time outside. My family and I live in the country and each spring one thing we enjoy doing is going morel mushroom hunting. These mushrooms grow in the woods only for a short time during the spring and when there out my family and I are out hunting them. These mushrooms are delicacy to many people because of their rarity. It’s hard to explain the flavor of them but my family and I enjoy eating them any chance we get. As a part of our Sunday we celebrated Easter. This year for Easter my family and I went out to eat at Red Lobster. Although dinner was just my parents, my sister and my self we had a really great time. We takes about our up coming family vacation and things we would like to accomplish over the summer.

Each day I am reminded of how great my friends and family are. This weekend was just one of those great weekends that I will never forget.

As a public relations practitioner there are many duties that are included in the job title. Being a public relations student I realize that it will be my job in the future to maintain relationships within the company I work for and my clients. One of the task that one may have to do to further a relationship is managing a special event. Planning an event is very time-consuming and calls for lots of organization. Some of the high-profile events include annual reports,special events, and trade shows.

Annual reports are usually a yearly report that gives a run down of the organizations activities, and shows the financial state of the company. Many annual reports are very important to companies and are mandatory. In an annual report there are two parts that are needed one being narrative documentation and one being a financial report. Non-profit organizations put a lot of weight into their annual reports. The reason is because non-profit organizations want to show where the money went for that year and they want to continue to earn donations.

Many companies will ask a public relations practitioner to plan a special event for them. There are many reasons that special events occurs for, an example would be a retirement celebration, anniversaries, or the launch of a new product. Many times when one is planning a special events there plenty of times to plan the event. The thing that public relations practitioners have to plan for is the unexpected. For example a client wanting to change the theme or change the whole event in general. When planning a special event it is important to try to reuse and reword different of pieces of work. A news release can be written into a feature and just needs some twitching. This will save you time in the long run and will help with organization as well.

Trade shows are usually used to roll out a new product or something of that sort that a company wants to feature. Many times a trade show is used for exposure but planning this exposure is time-consuming. Many times when a trade show is being planned there is a specific theme that one follows.

Last Friday was Relay for Life for the students of SIUE. I was happy to participate in this event and the fight to end cancer. I just like many others have been effected by cancer. My grandma, who happened to be my best friend as a little girl lost her battle with pancreatic cancer many years ago. Till this day I am very saddened by the loss of grandma. Although there wasn’t much I could do for my grandma except spend the last days of her life with her, I can help those who have cancer now and who will have cancer in the future.

Being a part of Relay for Life made me feel apart of something bigger than just my self. I was honored to raise money for those who need help with cancer research. The whole meaning of Relay for Life is to show people that cancer never sleeps. As a part of the Relay for Life event all of those in attendance are welcomed to participate in the lighting of the luminaries. The lightning of the luminaries is to honor all those who have been effected directly by cancer. To me the lightening of the luminaries was my favorite part of the night. It was the moment I got to honor my grandma and my boyfriend got to honor his mom. It was an emotional moment for me because its hard not to miss those who have passed because of cancer. At that moment I realized I was their for a bigger reason than just to raise money but to honor life and the life’s of others.

Relay for Life was a great event and I look forward to participating in many more Relay for Life events. At the Relay for Life PRSSA the club I am apart of won the spirit award. It was a lot of fun celebrating with my friends who are in PRSSA with me.

I look for the day in life when there is cure for cancer, so that no one else looses a loved one because of this disease.